Five Boys and A Wheel Wins the Golden Khanjer Award at Muscat International Film Festival

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The Film's Third International Award

Five Boys and A Wheel Wins the Golden Khanjer Award at Muscat International Film Festival


Director Said Zagha's short film Five Boys and A Wheel won the Golden Khanjer Award at the closing ceremony of 10thedition of the Muscat International Film Festival, held in the Sultanate of Oman on Saturday, March 31. The film participated in the Rays Short Films Competition. This marks the film's third award at prestigious film festivals around the world.

Most recently, the film won the Golden Wahr Award at the Oran International Arabic Film Festival in Algeria and the Silver Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival. This year, Five Boys and A Wheel took part in a number of prestigious film festivals around the world including; the Chicago Palestine Film Festival, MONA Film Festival and Reel Palestine Film Festival. MAD Solutions, which is handling the film's distribution in the Arab world, has recently released the film in Egypt within the Stars in Shorts programme that presents four award-winning Arab short films featuring a number of outstanding stars from across the Arab world.

Five Boys and A Wheel is based on American author Raymond Carver's short story 'Bicycles, Muscles, Cigarettes'. Set in Jordan, a young father has to help his son out of a petty conflict with the neighbors. As the parents of each respective family are summoned to discuss the issue at hand, the discussions begin to quickly spin out of control, putting the values of the father to test.

Five Boys and A Wheel received support from the Royal Film Commission - Jordan (RFC). The film stars Ali Suliman, Nadira Omran, Haydar Kfoof, and is produced by Akram Al-Ashqar, Ahmad Khatib and director Said Zagha.

Five Boys and A Wheel made its world premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) in its Muhr Short competition. The film had its North American premiere at the 40th Portland International Film Festival (PIFF) in February, 2017, while its European premiere was at the Middle East Now Festival in Italy. The film also screened at several other festivals including the MOOOV Film Festival in Belgium, Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts and the Festival Ciné-Palestine in Paris.